An exclusive article on page 93 in this issue, “Wireless Access Abounds,” features more than a dozen wireless access control products, many of which will be exhibited at ISC West. With their wireless functionality, these products can help you solve customer problems or improve your installation efficiency. Many of the products described also have corresponding videos that you can watch at www.SDMmag.com/videos.In this second article in the four-part series of SDM’s State of the Market Reports, we delve into the viability of the access control market. Senior Editor Karyn Hodgson writes, “Sometime around the middle of last year many access control industry insiders noticed a welcome phenomenon: People were smiling more. At trade shows, around industry roundtables and across boardrooms, a collective weight seemed to have lifted. As the economy finally shrugged off the doldrums and businesses started loosening the purse strings, those manufacturing, selling and installing access control saw momentum — whether for the first time since the recession or as a continuation of a recovery begun a year or two earlier — that led to a positive 2014 for most and a rosy outlook for 2015.”
The availability of innovative technology always helps to spur sales. Two technologies to watch in 2015 are the use of the smartphone as a credential and wireless readers. But technologies can only help convert customers’ interests into actual sales if budgets are readily available. If businesses don’t have the money to fund security projects — whether as a capital expense or a recurring expense — then projects don’t get sold. However, systems integrators lately are seeing those budgets becoming more available.